GMA: US has invited RP team to Iraq

The United States has a standing informal request for the government to send a humanitarian mission to participate in the post-war reconstruction of Iraq, President Arroyo said yesterday.

This "informal request" was issued even before the war erupted in Iraq, when US ambassador to Manila Francis Ricciardone met with Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople "to invite" the Philippines to join the coalition of the willing.

After the Philippines agreed to join the coalition, there were discussions focusing on what form the Philippines’ participation would take, "on what we’re capable of doing, of what we’re legally allowed to do, what we can actually afford," the President said.

She said that "from the beginning, we were upfront with the US about we were capable of doing — physically, legally and constitutionally. So even at that time what we’re saying what we could send is a humanitarian mission."

Though the original 500-strong peacekeeping and humanitarian contingent to Iraq has been reduced to 175 members, Mrs. Arroyo said Washington understands the Philippine government’s situation and capability to fulfill its obligations.

Mrs. Arroyo said that there should be no quibbling about the Philippines sending its 175-man contingent to Iraq as uninvited guests.

"These things are not done, anyway, in formal request until you’ve more or less agreed with each other on what it’s going to be," she said.

The President said she left it to the humanitarian mission task force, co-chaired by Ople and Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes, to work out the details of the mission’s deployment to Iraq.

She said the task force gets the report from a three-man team sent to Tampa, Florida — the headquarters of the US Central Command — to coordinate matters on Iraq’s post-war reconstruction.

"(The US) said we can help in the planning and also in the post-conflict efforts (in Iraq)," Mrs. Arroyo said.